I spend my days talking about systems, usually for revenue and AI. The executives I coach through reinvention keep asking a question that has nothing to do with either: how do you stay in shape when every hour is spoken for? The answer is the same answer I give about pipeline. Decide the minimum, protect it, measure it, and stop renegotiating it with yourself every morning.
Why does fitness get harder after 40 for executives in particular?
Three things change at once. Your body recovers more slowly and loses muscle more easily, so a month off costs more than it used to. Your calendar fills with other people's priorities, because seniority means more meetings, more travel and more decisions. And your identity shifts: at 30 you might have called yourself an athlete; at 45 you call yourself a CRO, a founder, a parent. Training stops being who you are and becomes something you fit in. Nothing you fit in survives a bad quarter.
The fix is not more motivation. It is to give training the same status as the things that do survive a bad quarter: a board meeting, a flight, a child's recital. Those happen because they are scheduled, specific, and involve other people. Make your training the same.
What is the minimum that actually works?
I am not a trainer, so this is the plan that has held up for executives I know, not a prescription. Adjust it with a professional.
| Session | What | How long | Why it holds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength, two days | Four or five compound movements: squat or leg press, hinge or deadlift variation, push, pull, carry | 35 to 45 minutes | Short enough to fit before the first call; protects muscle, which is the thing you lose fastest after 40 |
| Long easy effort, one day | Walk, hike, ride or swim at a pace where you can talk | 60 to 90 minutes | Usually a weekend morning; doubles as thinking time or family time |
| Daily walk | Ten minutes, outside if possible, often after a meal or a hard meeting | 10 minutes | Costs nothing, resets attention, and keeps the habit alive on travel days |
That is roughly three hours a week. If you can do more, do more. If you miss a strength day, do the daily walk and move on. The plan is designed so a missed session is a data point, not a collapse.
How do you protect it from a full calendar?
- Book it as a recurring meeting with yourself, with a location. "Gym, 6:15 to 7:00" in the calendar, visible to your assistant and your team. A block labeled "busy" gets moved. A block with a place and a purpose gets respected.
- Pick the time nobody else can take. For most executives that is early morning. If you are not a morning person, a fixed midday block works, but only if you defend it the way you defend lunch with a top client.
- Decide the travel version in advance. Hotel room: 20 minutes of bodyweight work and a walk. No decision required at 6 a.m. in a strange city.
- Involve another person. A trainer, a friend, a standing walk with a colleague. The sessions that involve someone else happen at roughly twice the rate of the ones that do not.
- Track one number weekly. Sessions completed out of three. Not weight, not pace. Just whether the system ran. When I helped a five-person team generate $32 million in revenue, the discipline was the same: one number, looked at every week.
What should you do during a career transition?
If you have been laid off or are between roles, training moves from nice-to-have to structural. A job gives your week a shape. When the job goes, the shape goes with it, and the first thing most executives lose is the morning. I wrote about the first 30 days after a layoff separately; the short version for fitness is to keep the same training time you had, or set one if you did not have one, and build the rest of the day around it. Train, then outreach, then review. A transition is also when the identity question matters most. Being the person who still trained at 6:15 on the worst week of the year is worth more than any line on the resume.
How does this connect to performance at work?
I have given keynotes in 17 countries and sat in more early-morning green rooms than I can count for 130-plus television segments. The pattern I see in the leaders who perform under that kind of schedule is consistent: they do not treat their energy as an afterthought. They sleep, they move, and they protect both the way they protect their best accounts. The returns show up as steadier energy through long days, faster recovery after a setback, and, many of them report, clearer thinking in the hour after training. None of that requires a two-hour gym session. It requires the three-hour floor, kept for years.
If you are rebuilding more than your fitness, run the career premortem on the plan and see which failure modes show up. "I never actually scheduled it" is usually on the list. The fix is a calendar invite, not a new program.
I wrote There Is No Tomorrow for executives over 40 who are ready to stop postponing the things that matter. Fitness is one of them. The next act is easier to build when you have the energy for it.
Frequently asked questions
- How many days a week does an executive over 40 need to train?
Three is the number that holds up under a real calendar. Two strength sessions and one longer walk, hike or ride, plus a daily ten-minute walk, is a floor most people can keep for years. More is fine when life allows it. The mistake is designing a six-day plan you can only keep in a quiet month.
- Is strength training or cardio more important after 40?
Both matter, and if you can only do one thing consistently, make it strength training with simple compound movements and add walking on the other days. Muscle is harder to keep after 40 and easier to lose during a stressful quarter. Check with your doctor before starting a new program, especially after a long break.
- What is the best time of day for an executive to work out?
The time nobody else can take from you. For most executives that is early morning, before the first call. If mornings are impossible, book a recurring midday or late-afternoon block in your calendar and treat it like a client meeting. The best time is the one that survives a bad week.
- How do you stay fit during a layoff or career transition?
Keep the schedule you had, or build one if you did not. A transition removes the structure a job provided, and training is one of the few anchors you can control completely. Put it in the calendar at the same time every day. It also gives your search a rhythm: train, then outreach, then review.
- Does fitness actually affect performance at work?
In my experience, yes, in three visible ways: steadier energy through long days, better sleep, and a shorter recovery after setbacks. Many executives also report clearer thinking after training. Treat it the way you would any operating investment: a small, consistent input that compounds.
Building a next act, not just a workout plan?
The Reinvention Pressure Test is a working session with Chris to pick your path, write your one-line offer and plan the first 90 days.
See how coaching works · Take the 93-second diagnostic · Read There Is No Tomorrow